EigenLayer’s first-ever restaking smart contracts reached their maximum limits on Wednesday, the same day the DeFi platform was deployed on the Ethereum mainnet. The contracts, which allow people to “restake” Ether (ETH) and use it to secure other platforms, drew in 9,600 tokens worth more than $16 million. According to blockchain analytics firm Nansen, the contracts saw the highest capital inflows in the past 24 hours from “smart money” wallets, including the address that deployed the U.S.-sanctioned Tornado Cash money mixing tool, and an address linked to Hassan Bassiri, the former vice president of portfolio management at crypto hedge fund Arca.
EigenLayer’s restaking system lets Ethereum stakers reuse their interest-earning staked ETH to “extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn additional rewards,” according to the protocol’s documents. The protocol’s Twitter account noted that the restaking contract limits will be raised over the coming weeks and months.
Steven Quinn, head of Research at staking service provider P2P, commented that the large early inflows into EigenLayer’s smart contracts represented “a strong signal of confidence in the EigenLayer team and demand for the restaking market.” He added that restaking could potentially further boost ETH staking real yield by massively expanding ETH’s utility as collateral to secure additional protocols.
In March 2021, EigenLayer raised $50 million in a Series A funding round, which saw participation from Blockchain Capital, Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, and Coinbase Ventures.